We've moved! Visit our new location at 1680 El Camino Real, corner of Roosevelt, just two blocks south of our old home! We've got parking, a more-open & spacious layout, no stairs and the same friendly staff you've come to know over the years. And as you can see, we've got bikes! A good selection of Electra Lofts & Cruisers, a fantastic selection of Trek e-bikes, and getting more higher-end mountain bikes every week. Road bikes arriving regularly but nothing below $2000 as of late-February. Most hybrids are months away but a few show up by surprise. Kids bikes for 3-8 year olds are in fairly good shape. Mountain bikes below $1300 are still off in the future. A $100 completely-refundable deposit reserves the next unsold bike for you!
Repairs- Effective 2/23 we cannot bring in department store or Amazon-purchased bikes in for repair, due to our severe backlog and the increased difficulty working on those bikes (diagnosis of issues, lack of reparability and difficulty finding parts right now). Parts shortages have "gone critical" and are not forecast to ease much for the next 6 months. This and the amazingly-nice winter weather we've had have backed up our repair department 4 weeks. Flat tires are still getting done on a next-day basis. We are working extra hours after we're closed to deal with this. Most repairs require appointments due to lack of storage space; we'll schedule a repair date and you bring the bike in two days ahead of time. This way you'll be without your bike for as short a time as possible and we can store bikes in a safe and protective manner. We note that Velofix, a mobile repair service, still has very short lead times.
Masks- Masks are going to be with us for a while, a requirement for customers and employees. Inside our store your must must cover your nose and mouth at all times. You may not move your mask down to talk or keep your glasses from fogging up. Also no vented masks; in most cases vented masks are designed to allow for easier breathing by having a one-way valve that allows you to breathe out more easily. That defeats the purpose of protecting others from Covid-19. We take Covid-19 very seriously; if you don't, you may find some other shops more compatible. None of our staff members have yet been infected, which is really an amazing accomplishment. It's also in the "so far" category, as we realize we've been also been lucky.
How and when to reach us- These are not normal times. When people are outside the store waiting to come in, the phone will not be answered. The priority will be to those who are already at our store. If you can't get through, try calling back 30 minutes later or send an email to bikes@chainreaction.com and we'll do our best to get back to you later that day. Our busiest times are the first hour we're open, especially Mondays & Tuesdays. 3-4:30pm each day is another peak time on weekdays, and 2-4pm Saturdays.
Thank you from our staff, Kevin & Lexi & Becky & Don & Sonia & Rolando & Roger & Dario & Jose & Mike & Steve & Karen & Tomas.
CLICK HERE FOR WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN COMING TO THE STORE-
(Revisited 02/06/21) PLEASE READ BEFORE CALLING OR COMING IN- Read the link above in blue; in a nutshell, we're serious about Covid 19 and require non-vented masks when you visit us. All employees will be wearing them as well. We suggest not calling or visiting the store during the first hour we're open; we cannot handle all of the phone calls coming in. We are also hitting another peak time between 3-5pm during which you might not get through. While we would have expected things to ease up during winter, our move to the new location is going to keep us on our toes for a while. For the time being we suggest sending emails for bike availability questions to Bikes@ChainReaction.com if you cannot get through; we will try to respond later that day. Thank you, and please know that we are doing everything we can to come out the other side of this in one piece and look forward to things returning to normal again.
(Updated 10/05/20) GETTING YOUR NEW BIKE- OUR SECRET WEAPON! Most everyone knows bikes are in short supply by now; KCBS even came by to do a news story featuring us. We have 1300 bikes on backorder right now. Just our single shop. 1300 bikes scheduled to arrive between now and June. We work with Trek daily, studying availability dates and creating a list that shows which bikes are coming in, and when. If anything's changed, Becky and Karen send emails with the updated status, often more than 50 in one session. Sometimes they get to make people really happy and tell them their new bike is coming in sooner than expected! And sometimes they have to deliver the bad news that delays at the port in Long Beach have added a week or two to the delivery time.
One thing is absolute. Once you place an order with Chain Reaction, nobody gets to cut in line in front of you, and, if someone changes to a different model, everyone else in line for that bike moves up one place. This means you never have to worry that a bike might come in that you want but somebody else snags it. You place an order, once, and we do the hard part.
